Overview

The Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement is being negotiated as a “next-generation” free trade deal that goes beyond NAFTA and the WTO in shielding corporate activity from government controls. The draft agreement includes extensive chapters on services and investment, government procurement, intellectual property, and standards and regulations. It will also contain a controversial NAFTA-like investor-state dispute process that allows corporations from Europe to directly challenge and sometimes overturn Canadian laws that interfere with profits – even for public health or environmental reasons.
 
Too secret, not democratic enough
 
Like all free trade agreements, the Canada-E.U. talks are happening in secret with each side, making offers and requests of the other in the hopes of getting the best deal for their home companies. By their nature, trade agreements are based on corporate interests – without corporate input how would the Canadian government know what to ask for? The flip side of this is that free trade agreements end up protecting corporate interests and giving short shrift to other public priorities such as protecting the environment, ending global poverty and generally creating economies that work for people not just for profits.
 
Lip service to sustainable development
 
CETA contains a nice sounding sustainable development chapter but like NAFTA’s environment and labour side-agreements, this one has no teeth. Meanwhile, its services, investment and procurement chapters, would give European corporations new tools with which to challenge public policy and remove provincial or local development initiatives that prioritize good, green jobs and the transition to more sustainable, local economies.
 
Municipalities left in the dark
 
Unlike NAFTA, the Canada-E.U. free trade agreement would interfere with local and municipal policies for the first time and yet our mayors and municipal councillors are not part of the negotiations. Policies designed to maximize public spending by considering the social as well as economic benefits of local sourcing or local hiring, would be banned. Municipal services, including water and energy utilities, would be restricted in the same way while European P3 consortiums (public-private partnerships) would get new guarantees in municipal tendering to the possible detriment of local public services.
 
What should we do?
 
Call your municipal councillors, provincial politicians and your Member of Parliament. Find out if they are in favour of this deal. If so, ask them how it would affect your community. Ask how it would strengthen Canada’s social, economic and environmental policies.
 
Tell us about your conversations. Link to the website. Share the materials. Learn more at http://tradejustice.ca.
 
Get your organization to sign the Civil Society Declaration on the Canada-E.U. trade agreement and become a member of the Trade Justice Network: TJN.RCJ@gmail.com
 
 
REPORTS
 
A Critical Assessment of the Proposed Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement Between the European Union and Canada -- A joint position of the European Federation of Public Service Unions and the Canadian Union of Public Employees, the National Union of Public and General Employees and the Public Service Alliance of Canada (January 2010)
 
Negotiating from weakness: Canada-EU trade treaty threatens Canadian purchasing policies and public services -- A report by Scott Sinclair for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (April 2010)
 
Municipal Procurement Implications of the Proposed Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between Canada and the European Union -- Legal opinion prepared by Steven Shrybman (Sack Goldblatt Mitchell LLP) for the Centre for Civic Governance at Columbia Institute (May 2010
 
Out of Equilibrium: The impact of EU-Canada trade on the real economy -- A report by Jim Stanford for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (October 2010)
 
 
An Economic Impact Assessment of Proposed Pharmaceutical Intellectual Property Provisions [in CETA] -- A report by Paul Grootendorst and Aiden Hollis for the Canadian Generic Pharmaceutical Association (January 2011)
 
 
How Well is Public Health Care Protected from Canada-EU Free Trade -- A backgrounder prepared by the Canadian Labour Congress (April 2012)
 
Legal analysis of leaked Canadian and EU services and investment offers -- A report for CUPE by Steven Shrybman, Sack Goldblatt Mitchell (July 2012)
 
 
▼ Download

10 Reasons Why CETA is Bad for Canada

"Hey Canada, heard of the CETA yet? No? It's not surprising! Once again, our federal and provincial government and business leaders are negotiating a "free trade" deal behind the backs of Canadians. This time, it's called the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement, or CETA for short. It will change the face of Canada as we know it, and Harper wants to sign it in a hurry - before anyone has a chance to debate it!"

Read and download the comic book here.